Author: Carson McMullenPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Cattle consuming low-protein forage (7% CP) require additional supplemental protein to maintain BW and BCS. Daily delivery of protein supplements places undue financial burden on cattle producers. Supplementing cows as infrequently as once every 6 d) has resulted in similar changes cow BW and BCS when compared to daily supplementation. As calving season nears, producers may wish to increase supplementation frequency. The responses to a change in supplementation frequency during the third trimester of gestation have not been widely investigated. Therefore, our objective in Study 1 was to evaluate the effect of altering supplementation frequency during late gestation on performance of spring-calving cows grazing low-quality, dormant native range and supplemented with dried distillers grains with solubles (DDG). Angus x cows (n = 238; mean age = 6 ± 2.5 yr; average initial BW = 618 ± 56.2 kg; average initial BCS = 5.7 ± 0.03) were stratified by age, BW, BCS, and assigned randomly to 1 of 4 treatments: 1) DDG daily (D1); 2) DDG once every 6 d (D6); 3) DDG daily from d 1 to d 60 and then every 6 d (D1-D6); 4) DDG every 6 d from d 1 to d 60 and then daily (D6-D1). Treatments were initiated 100 d prior to expected onset of calving. Cow BW and BCS were measured every 28 d. Cows were sorted daily before supplementation at 0830 h. Supplement delivery was calculated to meet dietary CP requirements. Increasing supplementation frequency 28 d prepartum negatively affected final BW and BW change from d 61-88 for the D6-D1 supplementation group (P 0.05) compared to other supplementation groups. Cow BW change for the study (d 1-88) was also less (P